SOCIALISM IN ENGLAND. 
321 
more important than the mere material loss, involved in the 
means proposed, is the end in view in itself desirable ? Shorter 
hours of labour, more leisure, a more equal distribution of wealth, 
the substitution of an “ intelligently ordered co-operation for 
existence ” for the present “ physically disordered struggle for 
existence ”—all this sounds very inviting. Let us see what are 
the probabilities of obtaining it, and, apart from the initial cost, 
what price must we pay for its maintenance. 
The Social Democrats never attempt to give any clear notion 
of the working of the Collectivist State, either because they have 
formed none themselves, or because a frank statement would 
expose its absurdity. All they say is that land, mines, and all raw 
Materials ; railways, shipping, and all means of communication ; 
factories, machinery, and all instruments of production all 
the land and capital of the country, in short—is to be con 
centrated in the hands of a democratic State, and the work 
of production, distribution, and exchange is to be carried on 
“agricultural and industrial armies under State control. 
Competition will, it seems, be merged in the huge State 
nionopoly, and exchange will be effected, in some undescribed 
way, without profit. Every article produced will, I suppose, be 
ticketed as equivalent to so many hours’ labour, and will be inter 
changeable with labour-notes in some such way as suggested by 
Rodbertus.* As nobody will have any private capital, everybody 
will have to enlist in the service of the State ; and to produce the 
wealth necessary to secure a reasonable competence, something 
like two hours’ work a day will, they maintain, suffice. 1 here 
will be a great saving, they say, in the wages of superintendence 
and in the costs of distribution. The superintendents—includ 
ing, I presume, the whole hierarchy of State officials who are to 
organize labour—are to be remunerated on the same basis as that 
of productive labourers, pure and simple, j This little admission 
—which is, indeed, only the logical consequence of the Socialist 
theory of value—enables us to form an estimate of the probable 
efficiency with which the gigantic task of organization will be 
* See supra. Chapter III. r 
t See Mr. Bax’s article, “ The Modem Revolution, m To-day, for 
July, 1884, pp. 71, 72.